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Two questions for the (zero) price of one. Backs against the wall, the Braves can only end tonight in one of two ways (I guess there could be a freak rain delay?): force a winner-take all Game 5, or bow out of their 2026 campaign.

That they’re in this place isn’t surprising given that they have A) allowed homers, and B) not hit many homers. They stole one game of the series while getting outhomered, but asking them to steal multiple that way is an even tougher sell than a single win. The Braves have been out-homered 7-2 in three games, and well, allowing seven homers in three games is basically a nightmare, especially for a team whose main claim to 90-plus wins was having relievers who didn’t allow key homers late.

While they’ve faced good pitching, the Braves have a .245 wOBA and .251 xwOBA in the Division Series so far; the Dodgers are at .309 and .339, respectively. So, something’s gonna need to change, or something very wacky is going to need to happen for the Braves to live to fight another day… or series.

Who’s going to be responsible for one or the other? Have at it.

Two days ago, we asked who your top free agent target was. Today, it’s time for the reverse. Very few free agent possibilities meet with unanimous agreement; there’s always reason to believe that a player might not pan out, or that they might not be worth the price they’ll command. It’s more fun to dream of a new signing being that long-awaited missing piece than to dread them being a mistake, but you can’t always be positive.

Today’s question is: Are there any free agents you’d prefer the Phillies steer clear of?

It’s become an annual ritual for the Orioles front office. Every offseason, when fans are clamoring for the O’s to sign a top-tier ace pitcher, Mike Elias inevitably says “no thanks” and instead throws some money at an aging, back-of-the-rotation veteran. It’s a tried-and-true formula that Elias continues despite the fact that it basically never works.

Oh, sometimes the veteran will eat up innings and provide clubhouse leadership, like Kyle Gibson in 2023. But more often than not, the pitcher will show his age and get absolutely torched, like, well, Kyle Gibson in 2025. This past winter, after the O’s again failed to land a frontline starting pitcher, Chris Bassitt became the latest grizzled vet to engage in the Orioles’ yearly tradition. He signed a one-year, $18.5 million deal with the Orioles on Feb. 13, nine days before his 37th birthday.

It wasn’t much consolation for Orioles fans who’d had visions of the team landing a true #1 starter, but the signing of Bassitt made some sense. The former All-Star was an experienced AL East pitcher, spending the previous three seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and posting an above-average 109 ERA+. And he said all the right things after joining the club, insisting that he signed with the O’s because he thought they had the talent to win the World Series.

Orioles fans, scarred by the team’s previous forays into the old-guy starting pitcher market, asked one thing above all of Bassitt: don’t be the next Charlie Morton. The O’s had been burned a year earlier when they handed a $15 million deal to Morton to coax him away from retirement, only for the 41-year-old righty to implode with a 5.42 ERA before being jettisoned at the trade deadline. You wouldn’t think it would be a high bar for Bassitt to clear. And yet, he crashed right into it.

Bassitt made a lousy first impression on Orioles fans when he coughed up four runs in 4.1 innings in his team debut, then got blistered for six runs in two innings his next time out. He didn’t even pitch five innings in an outing until his fourth start, a scoreless performance against the Guardians, but then went right back to stinking. After 10 starts in an O’s uniform, Bassitt’s ERA was 5.51 — even worse than the dreaded Morton mark. The Orioles, despite Bassitt’s bold claims, were nowhere close to winning a World Series, and Bassitt himself was a big reason why.

On June 3, Bassitt left his start at Fenway Park after three innings, and not just because he was struggling again. He exited the mound with low back discomfort, an ailment that landed him on the IL for more than two months. Ineffective and injured, Bassitt’s tenure with the Orioles was shaping up to be one of the worst in recent team history.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the end of his story. Bassitt returned to the Birds in mid-August and showed significant improvement in his second act, going 5-1 with a 3.74 ERA. The Orioles won six of his eight starts. Those numbers aren’t dominant, but they’re much more in line with the pitcher the O’s thought they were getting when they signed him. One wonders if the back injury was affecting Bassitt long before the Boston start. Whatever the case, the two months of rest served him quite well.

Bassitt’s overall season stats — a 9-5 record, 4.59 ERA, and 1.0 fWAR — weren’t as dreadful as they were shaping up to be during his awful first half. Still, time comes for us all, and nearly all of Bassitt’s numbers at age 37 were his worst in a decade, including his ERA+ (89), WHIP (1.549), H/9 (10.6), and K/9 (6.5). Bassitt wasn’t fooling many batters, ranking in the eighth percentile in K% and just the fifth percentile in chase percentage.

He wasn’t Charlie Morton bad, and certainly not 2025 Kyle Gibson bad, but Bassitt wasn’t worth $18.5 million. Based on FanGraphs’ general principle that 1 WAR is worth about $8 million in free agency, Bassitt’s performance merited less than half of the salary he got. The Orioles shouldn’t and won’t re-sign him, unless they’re convinced that the second-half Bassitt is the version they’ll get for a full season. We can only hope that’s not something they’ll talk themselves into.

I’ll say this about Bassitt: as a clubhouse presence, he provided the veteran leadership the Orioles badly needed. It wasn’t enough to transform the O’s into a good team, of course, but Bassitt was candid and forthright about the many flaws with the Orioles and what needs to be done to fix them. In The Baltimore Banner’s 2026 Orioles postmortem, Bassitt spoke about the need to address fundamentals up and down the organization.

“I think the most impactful and important changes for this organization going forward is the people like Shane Baz, [Kyle] Bradish, Pete Alonso, Gunnar Henderson to walk into a room next year with the entire minor league system, especially coming from Gunnar, who’s been through this minor league system, and say, ‘Hey, I know what we’ve done in the past. But what we’ve done in the past is not good enough. And we are about to make some small changes, some major changes, some things that are non-negotiables, some things that are not going to be tolerated anymore.’”

Bassitt emphasized that the Orioles need to focus on “all the little things. Rules off the field, rules on the field. Baserunning rules, hitting rules, your work, your game preparation, your lifts. Whatever it may be. Pick the subject, there’s rules for it.” Bassitt added, “I think players in this room have got to grab the reins and responsibility of what it takes to be a big leaguer who really wants to win.”

You know, I’m starting to think the Orioles should re-sign Bassitt after all — to be their new manager. (I’m kidding. Well, sort of. But Bassitt’s comments were more insightful and enlightening than anything I’ve ever heard Craig Albernaz say.)

In all likelihood, Chris Bassitt’s tenure in Baltimore was one year and done. But if the Orioles hope to pull themselves out of the malaise they find themselves in, they’d be well served to heed his advice for the future.

The count drags on. Basic numbers revealing basic problems.

6 — Six wins against the Colorado Rockies. That number should be read with added emphasis: just six. Italics needed. The Giants had double-digit win totals against Colorado in 2025 and 2024, but in 13 confrontations in 2026 against the bottom dwellers of the division, of the Majors, the Giants were 6-7. It was San Francisco’s first losing record against Colorado since 2020.

While the years wandering east of 2021’s Eden have been disappointing, there’s a significant difference between 80 and 65. That difference can be explained by looking at the head-to-head record against Colorado. The 2024 and 2025 Giants certainly weren’t the Rockies. The 2026 Giants…well, if you lose more often than you win against a bad team, you probably are one as well.

7 — Seven ejections for first-time manager, Tony Vitello. TV bagged that league-leading lucky number in the 3rd inning of game 162. 

Home plate umpire Ryan Blakney took exception to Vitello taking exception to not getting a strike call on a Mookie Betts check-swing. Upon review, Vitello was pretty animated. Upon review, he was justified. Betts should’ve been ruled out, he wasn’t. The Giants manager made his frustrations known on the matter, and his offseason started early for it.

Ejections are all about messaging. Managers argue because they want to show their players that they have their back. When they spew expletives at umpires, they’re really holding each player to their chest and whispering: Listen to my heart, it beats for you.

For Vitello, the “losing control” was one of the only things he could control. Six of his seven ejections came after July 1st. The Giants season was half-way done and fully lost — but obviously there were still relationships to foster and maintain with many of the players that will be returning in 2027. No matter how bad the team is, how meaningless the outcome, it’s the manager’s job to try and win that game. While we’re still iffy on the in-game decisions, Vitello seemed at ease with the performative bluster of spitting into an umpire’s mouth. So he huffed and he puffed, making himself an easy target for those boys in blue.     

8 — Eight players that started the 2026 season at the Double-A level or lower. By September, a more accurate name would’ve been the San Francisco Giant Flying Squirrels.

Jonah Cox initially made the leap on May 31st, flying over Sacramento entirely to reach San Francisco from Richmond. Yunior Marte similarly hurdled the River Cats with the Giants selecting his contract in late-August. Three months prior he was playing A-ball in Eugene.   

Pretty much everyone else climbed the developmental ladder one rung at a time. Drew Cavanaugh got called up to Sacramento on May 12th and a month and a half later, he was in San Francisco to fill in as a back-up backstop.  Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson, started the year in the Guardian’s AA-affiliate Akron and then moved to Richmond in the Patrick Bailey trade. He was in San Francisco for good by the end of August. Turner Hill, Cesar Perdomo, Scott Bandura, and Bo Davidson all debuted in the final month, month-a-half of the season.  

Jumping two farm levels from A to Triple-A in a single year isn’t all that crazy, but it’s definitely less common to hurdle from the middle Minors to the Majors. To have eight players start their year as Flying Squirrels (or an Emerald if you’re Marte) and end the year as Giants is quite the transformation. While we should applaud the grit of some, who not only floated but even swam after being thrown in the deep end, the fact that the top-tier of the organization had to reach so deep into their pockets to fill out a roster says a lot about how the year went.    

This also complicates things in the near future. With the Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire December 1st, and a potential lock-out looming, adding some of these players to the 40-man meant they’ll be directly affected by the fall-out. They’ll be unable to play for the minor league affiliates, locked-out of team facilities, and barred from communicating with coaches, trainers, and other team officials. 

9 — Nine innings in a baseball game. Nine Giants positioned on a baseball field. Nine games played before San Francisco emerged victorious against the Diamondbacks, which brings me to… 

10 — Ten total losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Giants were 3-10 against them. Good for a dismal .231 win-percentage — San Francisco’s  lowest win-% in a season against Arizona since their formation in 1998.

2026 was the Giants’ fifth straight season with a losing records against AZ, but this one easily takes the cake in terms of embarrassment. The D-Backs swept them twice. They lost eight in a row before winning their first. Ketel Marte single-handedly beat them on multiple occasions. Arizona body-slammed them into the dust early on, and the Giants decided it was best to just lie there, bedded in the desert, baking in the impossible Phoenix heat.   

While inter-division performance isn’t as weighted as it once was on this newish schedule. When the two-divisions were introduced to each league in 1969, the Giants played 90 games against the five other teams in the west  —  still nearly a third of their games are against the Dodgers, Padres, Rockies and D-Backs. 13 games each, and the Giants had a losing record against every one of them. A 17-35 spread over. Their  32.7 win-%  good for another low, San Francisco’s worst in the Divisional era. 

11 — eleven times swept in a series. Compare that to their one (1) sweep mentioned in a previous post. They were held winless in five different series against NL West teams (2 ARI, 2 LA, 1 SDP, and lost two of three twice to Rockies). 

12 — a dozen different relievers with a blown save. That’s tied for the most in franchise history in a single season. This probably doesn’t shock you considering the merry-go-round that was the Giants bullpen. 2025 trade deadline sales and offseason roster construction pretty much ensured that San Francisco’s back-end would be a wishy-washy closer-by-committee / who’s-rested/ who’s hot/ who drew the short-straw. Unsurprisingly, this arrangement didn’t work out. 

The trials and tribulations of the 2026 Giants bullpen have been well-documented. They will live on in infamy. As a team, the Giants recorded 27 blown saves in total, logging a low 52.6 Save%, which was the fourth lowest in Majors. 

12 is also the number of pitchers who recorded a save for the Giants, which was the third most of any team this year, and the most in their franchise history (dating back to 1969 when Save stat became official). 

To be clear, these are not the same 12. Eight of the relievers who recorded a save also blew one, which means there were four arms who recorded a save and didn’t screw one up, and four arms who screwed one up and never made a save. That’s 16 different pitchers tasked with seeing a lead through to the final out. Employing the throw it at the wall and see what sticks methodology is less than ideal when it comes to bullpen managing — but can you blame Tony Vitello for employing it? 

I vaguely remember him announcing Caleb Kilian would be the closer in mid-June, but the opportunities to actually save a game were few and far between. Kilian secured the save in his first opportunity. The next game he surrendered four in the 9th to the Athletics. He then bagged a couple more saves…then got lit up for three in the 9th against the Rockies…then he couldn’t maintain a tie in the 9th against Kansas City… Ten days later he was playing for the Phillies.  

Vitello tried it all. He played the crappy hand he was dealt.

13 —  Thirteen times the Giants were shutout by an opponent. To be fair, that’s not a particularly egregious amount. Seven other teams were held scoreless in more games this past season. In terms of California-era club history, 13 other (hey, another 13!) Giants teams were shutout in more games, the most being 18 in 1992. 

I guess this number stands out more when you consider the hopes we had for the Giants offense. The 2019 Giants were shutout 19 times. The 2010 team, 16; and 2014, 15. On paper, this 2026 line-up was supposed to have more punch. They did, and they didn’t. They were as tempermental as a motel shower’s temperature control — red hot one day and ice cold the next. It took them forever to get going. They were 21 innings deep into the season before they scored their first run. By the first day in May, they had already been shutout six times. 

14 — Fourteen players logged at least one defensive inning in left field.

Now, the number 14 isn’t particularly relevant or important. Is that a lot? Probably, but I just want to talk about what happened in left field; or, the real reason this Giants season was doomed from the jump. 

This has nothing to do with roster construction, or below-average performance, or injuries — this goes back to one little decision made at the start of the year: the decision to start Heliot Ramos in left field. Perhaps an innocent, even obvious, decision for rookie manager Tony Vitello then, but a fatally myopic one in hindsight. When Ramos trotted out to position himself in the left corner of the diamond he became the first Giants player since Barry Bonds’s departure after 2007 to start consecutive Opening Days in left field. I was salty (in a cheeky way) about it at the time. I’m good-naturedly ticked-off now. It’s clear that the “curse” is bona-fide  — a curse without quotation marks added. Respect wasn’t given where respect was due. Bonds required an offering. For just one day, one inning even, a player should have been sent out as an oblation. 

Instead Ramos defiled sacred ground…and where is he now?      

15 — Fifteen different lead-off batters. 15 different names penciled in at the top of the lineup to start a game. The tip of the Giants spear. Some teams had Pete Crow-Armstrong, or James Wood, or Shohei Ohtani — clear-cut lead-off leaders, no-brainers for the manager. Wake-up, and before even their first cup of coffee, write their name, in Sharpie, thick-tip and all-caps, it’s never going to change. 

But Tony Vitello and the Giants, it wasn’t who’s on first, but who’s batting first? As the season progressed, it became another task completed by a committee based on a variety of variables. Overall, there wasn’t a ton of production from the spot. Their 96 wRC+ from their lead-off hitter ranked 25th in the league. The .296 on-base percentage — one of the more important metrics for a player averaging the most plate appearances in a game — ranked last.  

Willy Adames and Luis Arraez both logged 31 games hitting first, tied for most on the team. Drew Gilbert, who fell into the role later in the season and served surprisingly well out of the top-spot, logged twenty starts exclusively against right-handed starters. Gilbert matured a lot over the year as he rose to the top spot. He hit .286 with a .557 slugging percentage and .378 OBP (82 PA). Arraez, Ramos, Adames, Lee — nobody was anywhere close to those numbers. 

16 — Sixteen players on the  60-day injured list by season’s end. That’s just…crazy. It’s also created quite a headache for the front office now that those 16 names have been put back on the 40-roster.  As of writing this, there are 56 names on a 40-man list — those numbers aren’t mathin’. 

17 — Seventeen big league debuts, Seventeen debut patches. Seventeen sets of family and friends clustered in the stands, hanging on every pitch thrown as their son or brother or nephew or partner realizes their life-long dream. The Giants led the Majors in those moments. That’s kind-a cool. Also kind-a connected to the health issues that tore the roster to shreds.   

71 — Seventy-one is seventeen but backwards, so it fits. Seventy-one is also the amount of  players to represent the Giants in a baseball game during the 2026 season, tying a record set by the 2025 Atlanta Braves. The Giants reached this height in the second to last game of the season, with a familiar face in Camilo Doval. 

Doval pitching in the 9th inning of a tie game against the Dodgers was not on my Giants’ season bingo card. Nor was a guy named Tugboat striking out Shohei Ohtani. But much like the 17 debuts, or 8 Double-A call-ups — the 71 different jerseys is a dubious honor, and an illustrative one. Teams don’t reach this kind of number if things are going according to plan. It wasn’t the plan to know the names Shay Whitcomb or Ryan Borucki or Jason Foley. I wasn’t dying to watch Andrew Knizner play baseball again. But by year’s end, what were we left with? What choice did we have? The roster churn generated some serious white water, and while the rapids were rough, they carried the rickety Giants raft down river.

Monday night was a brutal one for the Yankees as multiple defensive miscues and missed chances at the plate cost them Game 2 of the ALDS against the Rays. Now, they’ll have to return home and win twice just to get the series back to Tropicana Field for a decisive Game 5. At least in Yankee Fan Land, morale is low. The team, though, got Tuesday off for the travel day to go back to the Bronx, and hopefully they used it to get in a new mindset ahead of Wednesday’s Game 3.

However, the playoff still rolled on Tuesday, with both NL series in action. Let’s take a look at what went down on the other side of the bracket.

National League Division Series Game 3

Los Angeles Dodgers 3, Atlanta Braves 1
(Dodgers lead series 2-1)

The Dodgers snatched home-field advantage back in Game 3, thanks to a strong outing from Yoshinobu Yamamoto to outduel Atlanta ace Chris Sale, who succumbed to more playoff heroics from Enrique Hernández.

The marquee pitching matchup between Yamamoto and Sale mostly delivered. For LA, Yamamoto went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits and a walk, while striking out 10. The difference between him and Sale came down to one inning where the Dodgers’ offense struck.

With the game still scoreless in the top of the fourth, Sale allowed a leadoff single to Andy Pages. While Sale got the next out, Hernández came up with another big playoff moment, homering to give the Dodgers the lead. Freddie Freeman hit a solo shot a couple batters later to add on to LA’s lead. The former Braves fan favorite had been robbed of a shot to left by Mauricio Dúbon earlier, but this one was out of reach of anyone in uniform.

The Braves got on the board themselves in the fifth when a run scored on a Drake Baldwin groundout. The issue with that was that Atlanta had the bases loaded with only one out, but that single run on the grounder ended up being the only one they scored from that spot — against Yamamoto or the Dodgers’ bullpen. Much-maligned relief signing Edwin Díaz nailed down the save for LA, which can advance to its fifth NLCS this decade with a win today behind Tyler Glasnow or on Friday with Tarik Skubal. The defending champs are now in excellent shape.

San Diego Padres 4, Milwaukee Brewers 3
(Brewers lead series 2-1)

Needing a win at Petco to keep their season alive, the Padres staved off elimination, albeit in a very close game that went down to the final at-bat.

The Padres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning, but the Brewers clawed back those runs over the fourth and fifth inning to even things back up. However, San Diego answered back themselves, with Jake Cronenworth hitting a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the fifth. Then in the sixth, a costly error from Cooper Pratt — whose speed had helped Milwaukee tie the game up earlier — not only kept the third out from being recorded, but allowed Xander Bogaerts to race home, having started the play at second base.

Throughout the game, the Brewers had plenty of chances. They ended up outhitting San Diego 11 to six. However for the game, Milwaukee left 11 runners on base. Some of those came in the ninth as well.

In the late stages, the Padres turned to ace Michael King out of the bullpen, with Mason Miller on paternity leave and Adrian Morejon’s shoulder barking. He got through the eighth without much issue, but then walked two batters in the ninth, setting up Milwaukee with one last chance. However, King induced a game-ending double play out of Christian Yelich, allowing the Padres to keep the series alive. San Diego will try to do it again tonight to send the series back to Wisconsin for a winner-take-all Game 5.

Meet the Mets

The Mets announced a partial shakeup of their coaching staff yesterday. Director of Major League hitting Jeff Albert, quality assurance coach Danny Barnes, and bullpen pitcher Kevin Mahoney will not return to the coaching staff next season. They could end up remaining in the organization, but have been given freedom to speak with other clubs. The rest of the coaching staff will return in 2027. According to reporting by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, the Mets intend to interview multiple hitting instructors with various levels of experience and one of them may take the role vacated by Barnes or it is possible a new hire could slot below hitting coach Troy Snitker in the club’s hitting hierarchy.

Bruin Agbayani—son of Benny Agbayani acquired for AJ Minter at the trade deadline—was assigned to the Arizona Fall League and will be the second-youngest player on the roster.

SNY continued their Stay or Go series by evaluating whether the Mets should bring Mark Vientos back in 2027.

Around the National League East

Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Chris Sale in Game 3 of the NLDS, striking out ten batters as the Dodgers defeated the Braves 3-1 to go up two games to one in the series.

A sore right knee limited Ronald Acuña Jr. to DH duties in yesterday’s game and it is unclear whether the knee will continue to hinder his ability to play in the field in the postseason.

Kenny Albert called the game between the Dodgers and Braves yesterday in place of Joe Davis, who is sick and had lost his voice.

Alex Cora has once again rejected the Phillies as they tried to pursue him for their managerial vacancy. This now forces the Phillies to either conduct a wider search for their next manager, retain Don Mattingly, or consider another internal candidate.

Around Major League Baseball

The Padres hung on to beat the Brewers 4-3 in Game 3 of the NLDS and stave off elimination to force a Game 4. Two days after he pitched five innings in Game 2, Michael King recorded the final six outs of the game for the Padres in a gutty relief effort.

The Padres deny Mason Miller was tipping his pitches in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the NLDS. As he breezed through his first inning of work, they are considering a strategy of limiting him to one inning per appearance. However, he was not available for yesterday’s game, as he was placed on the paternity list.

Amidst the postseason fanfare, the Dodgers mourned Fred Claire—the former Dodgers GM who oversaw the 1988 World Series Championship team—who passed away on Monday at the age of 91.

Similarly, as the Guardians continue their series against the White Sox, they mourn the loss of Sam McDowell—six-time All Star whose post-career sobriety served as the inspiration for the Sam Malone character in “Cheers.” McDowell passed away on Monday at the age of 84.

There was some uncertainty surrounding Max Fried’s ability to start for the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALDS today, as his girlfriend is due to give birth. But he confirmed that he will pitch. “I’ve got a really supportive family that that understands that this is my job, and it’s not going to affect what happens tomorrow,” he said.

Matthew Leach of MLB.com reviewed five reasons why the Yankees could pull off a comeback in the ALDS. They are currently behind two games to none in the series against the Rays.

All four division series games feature a matchup between one team trying to advance to the Championship Series and the other team facing elimination. MLB.com runs down one storyline from each game.

The Orioles have laid off more than two dozen people in roles ranging from ticket sales to graphic design, per reporting by Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic. The employee that serves as the Oriole Bird mascot and popular in-game entertainer Mr. Splash were among those let go.

Major League Baseball is piloting experimental outfield positioning rules in the Arizona Fall League that limit where outfielders are permitted to stand, per Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

In a new episode of A Pod of Their Own, we announce a new date for our annual Dollars for Dingers fundraiser (October 17!), chat about the playoffs, and do an extra long Mensch of the Week segment.

Steve Sypa continued his series reviewing the 2026 season for all of the Mets’ minor league affiliates with the St. Lucie Mets.

This Date in Mets History

The Mets swept the Dodgers in the NLDS on this date in 2006.

The Dodgers are just one win away from securing their third consecutive NLCS appearance after a fierce duel between Chris Sale and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

During Tuesday’s contest, Miguel Rojas made an off-balanced throw over to first to get Ronald Acuña Jr. for the final out of the bottom of the sixth inning. While batting in the top of the eighth inning against left-hander Dylan Lee, Rojas fouled a pitch off and began to grimace after his follow-through. Rojas would exit in the middle of the at-bat, requiring Tommy Edman to pinch hit and man second base for him.

Rojas spoke with Kirsten Watson of SportsNet LA following the Dodgers’ 3-1 Game 3 victory, noting that his back began to tighten on that throw to first while feeling good enough to prepare for Game 4.

“The tightness started to happen after the play at second base when I kind slid right there with the grass,” said Rojas. “I wasn’t able to bounce back from what I was feeling on my hip, and my lower back tied up… I’m looking forward to be ready to go tomorrow if they need me.”

Rojas also expressed praise for Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s brilliant performance against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, as the right-hander tossed seven innings allowing four hits, one earned run and one walk while striking out 10 hitters, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com.

“He’s becoming one of the best pitchers in this stage,” said Miguel Rojas, who exited with lower back pain in the eighth inning. “Obviously he hasn’t won a Cy Young here or hasn’t been the best pitcher in the league, but we feel like every time he takes the mound, he’s the best pitcher for us. … And I know he will do whatever to help us out.”

October Kiké Hernández came out to play on Tuesday, as in his second at-bat against Chris Sale on Tuesday, he launched a two-run home run— his 17th career postseason home run— which ultimately made the difference in a 3-1 win. Hernández described his mentality when facing Sale the second time around, per Courtney Hollmon of MLB.com.

“My mentality was to grind out an at-bat, get a good pitch to hit, and if not, just be patient,” Hernández said. “He doubled up on the changeup. So he showed me where the changeup was going to start for a ball, and then the next pitch my eyes recognized, it popped. I’m lucky that I put a good swing on it.”

SAN DIEGO ― All-Star closer Mason Miller warned the San Diego Padres before the season began that this day was coming.

Maybe it wouldn’t be exactly on Oct. 6.

Maybe it would be during an off-day.

Maybe the Padres’ season would already be over.

Never, ever, did he imagine he’d be delivering the news Tuesday, less than 90 minutes before the biggest game of the Padres’ season.

Just before he was about to drive to Petco Park, with the Padres needing a victory to keep their season alive, he called his bosses.

His wife, Jordan, was going into labor. Their baby was coming. Sorry, he didn’t think he’d be able to make it to the game.

"We wanted to give him enough time in case the baby comes really quick, or it goes the other way," Padres manager Craig Stammen said, "and he could come to the game. We gave him the opportunity. We waited until an hour and a half, an hour before the game time, to make the final call. …

"He decided that he needed to stay with his wife."

What was your favorite moment of the season?

Wilyer Abreu’s go-ahead home run in the seventh inning against the Rays just after the All-Star break. The team went into the break red hot, but at that point they were still only one game over .500, and being a playoff team was far from cemented. When the ball left the park, it was a real “this team might actually be magic” moment, and watching the games stopped feeling like a chore.

— Jacob Roy

Roman Anthony’s absolutely stunning slide into home plate on August 31 against the Mariners. It tied up the game, setting the table for the Sox to walk it off in the next inning—but that’s not what I love about it. It is beautiful in its own right. It’s so precise, it could be ballet. It’s tight and complete, like a perfect poem: if you add or subtract anything, it doesn’t work anymore. It’s hypnotic; I almost go into a trance when I watch it. It brings me somewhere else and it’s amazing to me that the human body can do things like this.

— Maura McGurk

It was the dramatic White Sox game on August 6. The team looked so down and out and I was texting folks throughout the broadcast stating “you know, it’s okay to lose a game, they just don’t have it tonight.” Then came the runs in the 9th inning, and then the 10th, 11th and 12th. The hottest version of this team simply did not say die.

— Dean Roussel

Opening Day. There was a certain level of buzz, excitement and expectation about the future of the team I don’t think we’re going to see again for a long, long time. The Sox won 3-0, Garrett Crochet tossed six scoreless innings, Roman Anthony went 3-4 with a walk and seemed poised to have a gigantic season off his .920 OPS in the World Baseball Classic, and Marcelo Mayer had a pinch hit double and scored the winning run. The future seemed set, a division title seemed possible, we didn’t quite know how bad the rift was between Alex Cora and the front office, and playoff baseball at Fenway Park in 2026 felt likely. [Sigh]

It would be unfair to say the season was all downhill from there as it contained many wild ups and downs; but, just like a roller coaster, the top of all the other hills never reached the heights that preceded the first drop at the beginning of the ride. And, unfortunately, I think the Red Sox are worse off as a club moving forward because of it.

— Matthew Gross

The first thing I did on the Game 15 / Game 16 winning streak doubleheader day was grab a ticket to what would have been history. I’ve never been to a playoff game but I felt like the atmosphere at that game and the eruption at the Rafaela walkoff against the Rays in June 2025 must be what it’s like to witness some of those great moments. People cheering the team after they lost game two and didn’t extend the winning streak to 16 was magical. With the way the season ended I hope that isn’t forgotten. 2026 was a special team, even if that didn’t mean playoff glory.

– Mike Carlucci 

Collectively, the four-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park in late June. For about the 10th time in two months, we went into that series knowing that “if they don’t turn it on now, the season will be over,” and even that felt impossible when you did the math at 32-46. From Caleb Durbin popping his pinky back into place to take Cam Schlittler deep in the opener, to the Red Sox lineup picking up Wilyer Abreu’s defense in extra innings in the finale, there were four TEAM wins in a row that embodied who they were for a 32-5 stretch this summer that I will never forget.

– Bob Osgood

Seeing that wild walkoff (and review!) against the Giants in August was one of the coolest endings to a game I’ve ever seen at Fenway. Maybe it was the fine domestic beverages I had that evening talking, but after that victory I thought that we might’ve had some special devil magic that could’ve helped us come October. I thought we might’ve had the Mandate of Heaven.

– Fitzy Mo Peña

What was your least favorite moment of the season?

Besides the end, probably losing Garrett Crochet for the season. His last outing (besides the postseason) came on the day Alex Cora was fired, and vibes were at an all-time low. I still can’t help but think about how differently the season might have gone if he were healthy.

— Jacob Roy

Well the end, obviously, but outside of that, it was the pelvic thrust hit celebration from March and April.

— Maura McGurk

For sure the hitting woes the team faced in Colorado, of all places. If I were to name one game, the game that seemed thoroughly in hand up 2-0 before the offense laid an egg and Aroldis Chapman seemingly caught the yips and couldn’t record an out. Luckily, something pretty special followed that soon thereafter, and Chappy was awesome down that stretch.

— Dean Roussel

The bludgeoning at Yankee Stadium to end the season is the cop-out answer. But guess what? It’s also the correct one. Not just because getting your brains beat in by the most unlikeable team in sports by a combined score of 18-2 sucks, but because all the components that surrounded it also sucked and have the potential to be long lasting.

• The Sox spent the entire month of September with their foot off the throttle supposedly getting ready for that series and then got outclassed in every way. Doesn’t bode well for the DNA of the team in future playoff series without significant internal growth.
• Chad Tracy and Craig Breslow each got extensions just before it and then flunked the exam. We’re now stuck with them.
• Roman Anthony’s season-long battle with a hand injury reemerged at both the worst time and potentially in the worst way possible. Is this something that’s going to screw up the ceiling on his career? God I hope not!
• Garrett Whitlock got knocked around again in a playoff game. Just like he did last year at Yankee Stadium, and just like he did in the ninth inning of the WBC in March. Is this a guy you can trust going forward in these moments?

Best case scenario is the disaster somehow ends up contained to those two nights and doesn’t prove to be a harbinger for pretty much anything in the future.

— Matthew Gross

That final loss to the Rockies before things turned around. It felt like the last game (19 inning walkoff loss) before the All-Star Break in 2006 against the White Sox. We didn’t know at the time, but that was the beginning of the end for the 2006 team. This year was already turning into a lost cause and that felt like the tipping point – getting wiped out by a team that is supposed to be bad and seeing that worse team is the one from Boston. Glad to be wrong!

– Mike Carlucci

When the Red Sox took their foot off the gas on August 31st, after losing three of four to the Yankees. Fenway Park had collectively taken their tarps off and supported the squad with relentless enthusiasm for months, but suddenly the games felt inconsequential. I was in attendance at “The Jedixson Paez Game,” and I’m still waiting for a refund. Once they did that, we all knew that the next game(s) that truly mattered would be a month later on the road, and they were never able to get the car back into “Drive”.

– Bob Osgood

Not gonna say the obvious answer, although of course my least favorite part in earnest was the Wild Card loss. Besides that, I gotta say it was that Brayan Bello implosion against the Braves back in May. Five early runs for Atlanta prompted me to start asking existential questions to myself about Bello, who does deserve his flowers for eventually bouncing back following his stint in AAA. Still, that was the moment where I officially thought we’d be in for a loooooooooooooooooong season.

– Fitzy Mo Peña

Who was your favorite player?

I’ve been Payton Tolle’s biggest supporter, but even I wasn’t expecting him to improve as much as he did year over year. Even more important than his numbers, he’s just an absolute joy to watch with his on-field antics.

— Jacob Roy

Willson Contreras, the heart and soul of the team for a lot of the season.

— Maura McGurk

Mickey Gasper. I liked him when he was playing in Worcester. He was dreadful in his first time up, failing to get a hit in 18 tries, went to the Twins and performed, well, sub-optimally, came back on a minor league deal, lit the world up down there, came up and struggled, and then hit like Mickey Mantle for the hot streak. The team all ran cold at the same time, but when they were mostly hot and Gasper found the ball, you really did believe.

— Dean Roussel

For 2026 specifically, Caleb Durbin. He fought back from an absolutely miserable first couple of months (he was batting .190 as late as June 16th), grinded through injury, played excellent defense, got his uniform dirty pretty much everyday because he has to play that way to survive in this league, and made a huge impact in that 15-game winning streak. He’s never going to be a superstar, but I think he fits in well somewhere on a championship roster.

— Matthew Gross

Ceddanne ‘Nuf Cedd Rafaela. Catch after catch after catch. We’ve been lucky to watch some really good center fielders in Boston but sometimes he’s on another level.

— Mike Carlucci

Payton Tolle. His ability to combine incredible talent with a genuine love for playing baseball is what everyone should strive for. From the second he sent the Red Sox off to the WBC with USA shaved into his chest hair, I knew he was a real one.

– Bob Osgood

We have a guy who can become our first legitimate homegrown ace since Jon Lester. For this year, for the stuff he’s done on and off the field, it’s gotta be Mr. Tolle.

– Fitzy Mo Peña

Who was your least favorite player?

I appreciate that Patrick Sandoval was able to make it back on the mound after several injuries, but the guy just doesn’t have it anymore. There were players who were worse than Sandoval, but he was the most frustrating guy to watch on the mound.

— Jacob Roy

Marcelo Mayer. I wasn’t sorry to see him go.

— Maura McGurk

It’s been 10 for me for three of the last four years, but this year, it’s 16. I will say this with a precursor that fans get too belligerent with players and that I’m mindful and empathetic of Duran’s mental health struggles. However, the early iteration of this team suffered too many distractions due to Duran chirping back at guys he already beat by simply being on a Major League diamond, and his slash line of .207/.266/.361 simply shouldn’t be good enough to be a starting outfielder of a playoff contender. Never mind that he’s not even that good in the outfield. And also, the public lambasting of a teammate that is FAR outperforming him on not tagging up on a ball he would’ve clearly been thrown out on was dreadful. I mean, this has to be the worst season a guy who’s stolen 20 bases and hit 20 home runs has ever had, right?

— Dean Roussel

Jarren Duran. He represents too much of the missed opportunity and threat of decay that seems to be hanging over this franchise. The doubles and triples that were once a staple of his game evaporated in 2026, and I’m beyond tired of seeming him do absolutely nothing every time this team goes into Yankee Stadium (he has the most at bats by any left hander in Yankee Stadium without a home run). It’s time to move on.

— Matthew Gross

Adley Rutschman. Yeah, it was fun when he hit from both sides in the home run derby. That was years ago. Hopefully he has a big 2027 if there’s a season.

—Mike Carlucci

Marcelo Mayer. It wasn’t a coincidence that he went on the IL at the start of the Yankees series in late June and what happened to this Red Sox team in the weeks that followed. His attitude, work ethic, and hesitance to play through minor bumps and bruises were never going to survive in Boston.

– Bob Osgood

Duran. Not worth repeating everything already said. You’ve seen the numbers. Next.

– Fitzy Mo Peña

Overall, the 2026 Red Sox season made you feel…

The more seasons that go by, the less I care about winning the World Series. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to get drunk on Boylston Street as duckboats meander by as much as anyone, but not winning it all doesn’t ruin a season for me anymore. The remarkable, improbable, unexplainable run in July and August was a blast. Fellow Bryant Bulldog Mickey Gasper becoming the best hitter on the planet for a span was electrifying. The end of the season was a damper, but the team rescued summer and gave me a reason to keep watching. I don’t think I answered the prompt, but it was a fun season.

— Jacob Roy

Right now I’m still angry at the way they closed the season—from September through the embarrassing Wild Card series. Maybe those rough edges will smooth out with time and perspective, who knows. What I do know: there were high highs, and low lows. Those highs were amazing, while the lows were the worst. As I continue to process, it’s hard to distill into one feeling so I guess I’ll say like I was on a rollercoaster.

— Maura McGurk

Highs and lows. I realized how truly bad this team can be when everyone just stops performing. Those moments bookended how good a team made of scrappy platoon guys and a few decent hitters like Abreu and Contreras was. And this was without their ace, even if they seem to have found another top-of-the-rotation stud. Through it all, there were some coaching inconsistencies that I feel confident will peter out as Tracy simply learns the ropes.

— Dean Roussel

Flabbergasted! My head is still spinning from all the shocking moments. I can’t believe things took such an ugly turn from where we were on Opening Day. I can’t believe the club managed to salvage the season from 32-46 with the 15-game winning streak while they were mostly injured. I can’t believe they were so unprepared for the Wild Card Series. I can’t believe how bad the injury stuff got. I can’t believe how messy the Alex Cora stuff got. And honestly, I can’t believe how different of a place we’re in from seven months ago. It’s going to take a while to grab our bearings after that whirlwind.

— Matthew Gross

I don’t think every year needs to be “World Series or bust” to be successful but almost eliminated from the idea of playoffs in June is mind-boggling. Were they ever as good as the streak made them look? No. But late June, July, and August was one of the best (and most fun) stretches I’ve ever watched. And there wasn’t a guy massively overachieving. I mean, Gasper, but it’s not like it was a full season with 60 homers out of nowhere. Chandler Simpson on the Rays hitting zero homers is more unlikely than a career minor leaguer coming up and hitting 10. I had a fun season and clearly so did a lot of the team. If they lost 2-0 and 4-2 to the Yankees, which is not an unreasonable take with slightly better pitching (the bats didn’t show), people wouldn’t be nearly as upset right now.

—Mike Carlucci

Stagnant. Despite the numerous twists and turns — and I have to say there were more of them this year than any season I can remember — we’re right back where we were one year ago. With a similar record, the same seed in the playoffs, losing to the same team, and with the same offensive struggles and lack of power hitters that we saw a year ago. With the same GM saying the same (robotic) things that don’t really feel like answers at the end of the season. 

– Bob Osgood

The entire spectrum of emotions. At one point or another, this team made me feel something—and it was something different each and every time. I went from optimistic to apathetic before the All-Star Break. Delusion turned into delirium over the course of 15 straight wins in the summer. Ambitious dreams in August made way for tempered anticipation for a postseason berth in September. All of that led to anger, sadness, and—frankly—exhaustion by the time it was all said and done last week in the Bronx. Now, with a potential lockout looming and no Red Sox emotional rollercoaster to be had, I don’t know what I feel.

– Fitzy Mo Peña